Multitasking Across Borders: A Cross-National Study of Media Multitasking Behaviors, Its Antecedents, and Outcomes

Abstract

The study explores media multitasking behaviors of young adults in the United States, Russia, and Kuwait(N = 532). The results of multilevel modeling find that media factors such as structural, macro characteristics of media markets (e.g., technology distribution, the state of press freedom), individual media ownership, and audience demographic and psychological differences such as gender and sensation seeking predict media multitasking. In turn, media multitasking, along with structural characteristics of media markets, is found to predict perceived attention paid to primary media messages. The study offers cross-national evidence to support the existing developments in the area of media multitasking and suggests that individual- and market-level differences must be considered to explain media multitasking behaviors and perceived attention to mediated contents.